Posts tagged healthy

Boyfriend says you can’t make a gyro without the meat. Challenge accepted…

…and completed. With a bite in his mouth, he’s like “alright, maybe it’s good.”
That’s some high praise right there.

Made with seasoned and grilled shitake mushrooms and tempeh. MmmmMmmmm.

A billion egg whites later…

Horrible little deformed feet, but feet! I was kind of giving up hope that it was possible to make ugly macarons with stevia.

I’ve still got a long way to go, but at least I know I’m on the right track. Will post once I’ve got something that doesn’t require a bag over its head first.

On macaron batch 4. Still no feet, but the texture is getting there. Maybe I should have tried mastering a regular macaron before attempting sugar-free? Nah.

NEVER SURRENDER!!!!

It’ll taste better than it looks…

I’ve recently become addicted to the stuff, so figured it was time to get over my fear of fermenting (you know, that weirdo hippie thing?) and brew my own. It’s got a few more days to go. 

Ever gotten jalapeno oil in your eyes? Yeah, it’s a bummer.

Not that I would know how that feels—I’m not an injury-prone idiot…

By “baked” I really mean the lazy man’s version of jalapeno poppers. I like cheese, I like jalapenos. I just combined them in the easiest way I could without any complicated breading or frying.

It’s weird, within the same batch, one popper will be super sweet and not the least spicy, and another popper of comparable size will be hot as hell. It’s odd. As a rule of thumb, if you can’t handle spicy don’t make these bake them longer on a lower heat before broiling.

I usually eye-ball ingredients when I make this, and when I measured I was making 6 billion for a cookout. Amounts might’ve wonkied a bit in the process of scaling down. Fortunately, this is a really flexible recipe. Worst that could happen is you and up with some leftover filling or jalapenos, but hopefully the ratios should work out close enough.

Jalapeno Poppers
Makes 2 dozen poppers

• 12 Jalapenos
• 4 oz goat cheese
• 1 tsp honey
• 1/2 cup cottage cheese (could probably use cream cheese or ricotta)
• 1/4 cup chopped hard cheese (I used a a bit of parmesan, some asiago, and reybener that I had)
• 1/4 cup cheddar
• Optional*—I threw in 1/4 cup each of some havarti and some jarlsburg because I had them on hand. (If you haven’t noticed yet, I’m sort of a quesophile. And by “sort of” I mean a hard-core eat-a-grilled-cheese-sandwich-without-the-sandwich-part addict.)
• 1 small onion or 1/2 medium onion, finely diced

1. Halve lengthwise and seed the jalapenos (plant the seeds, or use them to flavor something later if you’re feeling thrifty) (when you halve, cut along the side that makes the deepest poppers)
2. Mix the rest of the ingredients together and then spoon a liberal amount into each jalapeno half.
3. Place in a baking dish (don’t even need to oil) and bake @ 350 for about 30-40 minutes or until jalapenos have lost their bright color and are tender.
4. Turn oven up to broil and place under the broiler for a minute or two until the tops get a little crispy.
5. Serve while hot. Mmmm.  
6. Eat with sour cream if too spicy.

Remember my awesome boyfriend? He’s still awesome.

A couple of months ago, his teacher submitted one of his essays to something. Apparently that something was an undergraduate essay competition for the Women’s Studies Dept, and apparently he won. Wuh-wuh.

So, to thank the teacher for submitting his essay, I made macaroons. (Yep, that’s “macaroons” with the double “O,” because I’m not good enough for that single “O” culinary feat just yet.)

I grated my own coconut because unsweetened grated coconut is nearly impossible to find around here and death by sucrose isn’t my thing. Plus, cracking open a coconut, drinking the water, and grating the fresh meat—so worth it. If you’re not anti-sugar and don’t want to go through the 5 extra minutes of effort of grating your own, this recipe will work fine with flake sweetened coconut (just omit or decrease the stevia).

I’m not even sure if you would call these macaroons. It’s just something I started making a few years ago and figured that’s the closest thing to what they were. Tasty either way and they’re the perfect size to just pop 3 million into your mouth.

Lazy Man’s Dark Chocolate and Pecan Macaroons

Makes 1-2 Dozen (depending on how big you make them)

• 2 tbs maple syrup
• 2 tbs Whipping cream
• 1 egg
• 1/2 tsp stevia (to start with, add more to taste)
• Meat from 1 large coconut, grated (or 3 cups grated/flake coconut)
• 1 cup pecans, chopped
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips/chunks/pieces, chopped up if not already pea-sized

1. Mix everything but the bottom three ingredients, then add them. Combine well.
2. Form macaroons with hands (press tight) and drop onto a greased baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until the coconut starts to toast up.

I fantasized in the weeks leading up to spring break about using the much-needed downtime to catch up in all my classes, maybe even get ahead. I told myself, “don’t worry about that calc III project or that physics lab report, you can do that over spring break.” And then when spring break finally kicked off, it became “you have a whole week to do that, no need to rush. Relax a little.” Guess what didn’t happen? At all. I think I knew all along that I would miserably fail at being productive. I accept that now. 

I did, however, do some cooking.

Oooh yeah. That lovely lady is a vegetarian potato vindaloo—which would be redundant because the “aloo” in “vindaloo” means “potato,” but ironically the dish doesn’t always feature its namesake—mounted on top of a heap of cardamom-infused basmati rice and served with some garlic and butter-slathered naan, which I tend to use as a shovel spoon. (It’s not a run-on if you ignore all grammar rules use em dashes).

We washed this all down with some mango lassi, which I didn’t get a chance to photograph. If you’ve never had it, your life is incomplete it’s a thick drink made of yogurt and sometimes milk and mango pulp with cardamom and occasionally other spices.
Sig change! I know it’s unoriginal, but it gets the job done.

I remember a few years back when a recipe called for “fresh coriander,” I got really frustrated that none of my go-to markets carried it and headed to the local Indian shop. With my “coriander” in hand at the checkout, I realized that it bore an uncanny resemblance to the familiar cilantro. Big “Oooooohhh” revelation there. Not one of my finer moments.
I know I’ve said this before about broccoli, but same applies to cilantro/coriander. The stem has plenty of flavor and is totally edible. Give it a go. The cool kids are doing it.

Naan—adapted from Kurry Leaves

• 1 1/4 oz packet of yeast (about 2 1/2 tsp)
• 1/4 cup warm (not hot) milk
• 2 tsp sugar
• 3 tbs yogurt
• 1 tbs oil
• Salt to taste
• 2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour (I used white whole wheat bc it’s what I had on hand)
• 1/4 water or as needed
• More olive oil
• 1/4 cup butter—melted mixed with 3 cloves garlic—pressed or finely minced
• Chopped cilantro if you want it to be all pretty

1. Temper the yeast by adding the warm milk and sugar to it and letting it sit in a warmish area for about 10 minutes. It should look frothy/foamy. If it doesn’t, it didn’t work.
2. Once your yeast has got its mojo going, mix in the yogurt, oil, and salt.
3. Add in the flour.
4. Add as much water as is needed to make a thick dough. (Will probably be more than what is listed)
5. Once you’ve got a good dough going, drizzle a little oil over it and set it somewhere warm to rise for an our or two (After that period of time you should have a wonderful, elastic dough).
6. Roll out golf ball sizes of dough. (I tried something I’ve never done before and really think it worked. I used a little bit of water instead of flour on my rolling pin and surface. It worked like a charm. If it’s not working for you, go back to flour, but give it a go.)
7. Fry naans, one at a time, in an oiled skillet. Optional: Cook one side in the skillet and the other over an open flame if you have a gas burning stove. Loved it.
8. Drizzle fresh naan with butter and garlic and sprinkle on the cilantro.

  Vindaloo

• Olive Oil
• 1 large onion or two small/medium, roughly chopped
• 1 large potato, pre-cooked (I just nuke for a few minutes)
• 5 roma tomatoes or 2-3 of a larger variety, roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 3 cloves chopped garlic
• 2 tbs chopped fresh ginger (a 1/2-1 inch piece)
• 1 tsp chili powder* (or as many fresh chopped chilies as your taste buds can handle)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper**
• 1/2 tsp cardamom**
• 1/2 tsp cumin**
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika**
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon**
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves**
• 1/4 cup vinegar
• Chopped cilantro—several handfuls

*This was pretty mild for us but a dinner guest was kind of choking from the heat, so use caution. Maybe start out with half the amount and add to taste.

**If you’ve got a good garam masala mix, you could use that instead.

1. Fry the onion in the olive oil on high until it gets a little color. Add the tomatoes and cook for another minute or so.
2. Turn off the heat and add the garlic and ginger. Let them cook from the residual heat for a few minutes while the mix cools a bit.
3. Blend the onion/tomato mix in a blender with the tomato paste, vinegar, and spices. It might help to mix all the spices together separately and then taste as you add. Blend until smooth or desired consistency is reached.
4. Return mix to the stove and stir in the potato and a handful or two of cilantro, heating until everything is uniformly warmed.
5. Top with additional cilantro and serve with basmati rice and/or naan.

Next time I have the brilliant idea of cooking my way through a preset list of other people’s recipes, please smack me upside the head before I commit.

Leek Soup with toasted Almonds and Gruyere

For all my complaining, this one was actually pretty decent. It was everything you would imagine a leek soup to be—very leek-ey. The toasted almonds really break up the texture and gruyere, well what isn’t it good on?

I omitted the dill oil from the original recipe because she soup had plenty of flavor without it and I thought it might funk up the taste.

Leek Soup with Toasted Almonds —adapted from 101 Cookbooks

• 1 bunch leeks (3 stalks)
• 1 tbs butter
• olive oil as needed
• 1 medium potato
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1-2 cups broth or water
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Toasted almonds and gruyere (could sub in any hard cheese) to top

1. Cook the potato until it’s almost done. (I slap mine the microwave for a few minutes)
2. Clean the leeks (yeah, it’s gonna take awhile). Roughly chop them and the potato.
3. Cook the potato and leeks over a high heat in the butter and oil until the leeks have softened. Turn off the heat and add in the garlic (it’ll cook from the residual heat).
4. Blend the leek potato mixture with liquid of choice.
5. Season to taste.
6. Top with the almonds and gruyure.
7. Enjoy!

Will post the whole shebang once this physics midterm is in my rearview. Until then, a glimpse of some sexy, sexy beets:

Here’s the full, completed post.

The Contenders:

(Parsnip, yucca, beet, potato, butternut squash, sweet potato).

May the best root vegetable (or squash if we’re gonna be pc) win.
Chip finalists will be scored on taste, ease of prep, and crispiness. The panel consists of myself, bf, and mom. Think of it like American Idol, but with way more fiber…

Got a favorite veggie chip, or wanna throw support for one of the above?